On this day: March 11

2011: An earthquake measuring 9.0 in magnitude strikes 81 miles east of Sendai, Japan, triggering a tsunami, killing more than 15,000 people and causing a nuclear emergency. Another 6,135 people were injured and 2,694 people left missing. It was the most powerful known earthquake ever to have hit Japan, and one of the five most powerful earthquakes in the world since modern record-keeping began in 1900.